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The American Friend

Play trailer Poster for The American Friend 1977 2h 7m Mystery & Thriller Play Trailer Watchlist
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88% Tomatometer 25 Reviews 80% Popcornmeter 2,500+ Ratings
American expatriate Tom (Dennis Hopper) treats Hamburg, Germany, like it's the Wild West and makes a living by hawking art forgeries, but decides to take part in a murder plot for extra cash. All Tom has to do to earn his share is find a potential assassin who won't do any talking, and he has the perfect man: Jonathan (Bruno Ganz), a dying cancer patient desperate to leave his family an inheritance. Jonathan begrudgingly accepts, but he's no gunman, and the scheme quickly goes sour.
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The American Friend

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Critics Consensus

The American Friend is a slow burning existential thriller that does justice to the Patricia Highsmith source novel.

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Critics Reviews

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Pauline Kael New Yorker Wenders uses densely detailed imagery, his pacing is weighted, and there are no insights that relate to the characters -- the film drags along on secondhand alienation. Sep 18, 2023 Full Review Steve Erickson RogerEbert.com ... only a filmmaker as humane as [director Wim Wenders] could recognize there's no way out of the story's moral corruption. Feb 15, 2018 Full Review Gary Arnold Washington Post An absorbing but rarefied, introspective variation on traditional thrilleer motifs, it's probably not the synthetis between the personal and traditional that Wenders needs but it's a fascinating compulsively watchable experiment. May 5, 2017 Full Review Rene Jordan El Nuevo Herald (Miami) The American Friend is something else. It's accessible, visually beautiful: a perfect mechanism with two notable performances: Hopper, the hysteric, and Ganz, the stoic. [Full review in Spanish] Jan 18, 2024 Full Review Jesús Fernández Santos El Pais (Spain) Wim Wenders evinces an extremely refined style that is much more effective here than in his previous films. [Full Review in Spanish] Aug 1, 2019 Full Review Sean Axmaker Seanax.com The cool, cunning sociopath of Highsmith's novel becomes a restless international hustler, selling art forgeries and brokering deals (some of which may actually be legal) while travelling back and forth through Germany, France, and the United States. Mar 30, 2017 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Sams K Very good movie, i really liked it! Great story and acting. Wim Wenders is such a master of directing. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 10/10/24 Full Review dave s Jonathan Zimmerman (Bruno Ganz) is dying of cancer. In order to provide for his wife and son, he is coerced by Tom Ripley (Dennis Hopper), a mysterious art dealer, and Raoul Minot (Gerard Blain), an equally mysterious criminal, to commit a murder in exchange for a large sum of money. What starts out as a pretty standard thriller quickly evolves into something more complex – a film about existential angst as Zimmerman comes to terms with the consequences of his actions and the long-term impact on all involved. Director Wim Wenders does an excellent job delving into Zimmerman's character and motivation, turning The American Friend into something quite different than expected. Despite the baffling and unlikely climax, it is a very satisfying thriller that asks as many questions as it does provide answers. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 03/30/23 Full Review Shioka O It's mostly in German and sometimes in English, so I need to switch/follow the subtitles... otherwise good film. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 09/21/22 Full Review isla s This is very much a European arty film - there is fairly little dialogue and it has some good cinematography. I liked the shots of the train with sunrise/sunset reflected on the outside carriages. There is a thoughtful side to it too and it'd be fair to say its a somewhat quirky film. It isn't tense or gripping but its watchable certainly. I'd say if your a fan of the directors work then its worth a watch yes - the final scene had a certain poignancy to it, I felt, though its not the kind of film likely to particularly appeal to everyone. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Audience Member I am a big fan of both Patricia Highsmith and Wim Wenders - separately. Together, they don't mix. Wim Wenders proved himself to be capable of directorial genius with movies such as "Wings of Desire" and "Paris, Texas," but he was the wrong person to direct a movie based on one of Highsmith's Ripley novels. It's slow when it should be fast, fast when it should be slow, and all too often unclear regarding what's happening and what's motivating the characters. I recommend the book, instead. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/13/23 Full Review William L The character of Tom Ripley has sort of evaporated from popular culture, at least in his original form as the subject of Patricia Highsmith's novels. Instead, we're left to piece together a collage of the character through a number of adaptations and lingering references, two of the most prominent of which are Anthony Minghella's The Talented Mr. Ripley and this Wim Wenders noir classic (Delon will have to sit in the corner, I haven't gotten to him yet); in the former, Ripley is a chillingly suave and sociopathic con artist with seemingly no level that he won't stoop to in his pursuit of easy living, while Hopper's take on the character is much more obtuse, mysterious, and humane, all of which contribute to the heady atmosphere of this noir homage. Exploring the influence of Hopper's Ripley over the protagonist (Ganz's Jonathan Zimmerman) and the role of American cinematic style in an international sense, Wenders takes bold steps to touch on the prevalence of an American moral and cultural presence on a world scale, for better or worse. Though predominantly set in Continental Europe, the language of choice for conversations between strangers tends to be English, and American rock music features prevalently in the soundtrack. The internal conflict of Ganz's character can best be described as an internal tug-of-war, between the immediate sanctuary of his quiet home life and loving wife (German-speaking, largely faithful, upright), pulling against an ambition to protect his family in the long-term, pulling him deeper into morally questionably grounds (the 'American influence' - quick money, no questions). However, Wenders injects a particular humanism and complexity that goes well beyond simple interpretations - Ripley is at once ridiculous, underhanded, and the instigator of the conflict that tears at Zimmerman, but ends up a true friend that cares for his well-being; Ripley sets up circumstances such that Zimmerman will be offered a position as a contract killer, but he doesn't force him to accept, Zimmerman alone made that choice. It's this strange combination of a dark view of human nature and a resilience of camraderie and love that Wenders alone seems to have been able to pull off so convincingly. Apart from the thematic depth, The American Friend is just a well-made understated thriller, full of well-composed imagery, great atmosphere, and tension in long, drawn-out scenes that you can cut with a knife. The assassinations are small-scale, intimate, and believable, and taken together with Ganz's conflicted and flustered depiction of his character, it's exceptionally well-made. Really tempted to rate this one higher, actually. (4/5) Rated 4 out of 5 stars 11/13/21 Full Review Read all reviews
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Movie Info

Synopsis American expatriate Tom (Dennis Hopper) treats Hamburg, Germany, like it's the Wild West and makes a living by hawking art forgeries, but decides to take part in a murder plot for extra cash. All Tom has to do to earn his share is find a potential assassin who won't do any talking, and he has the perfect man: Jonathan (Bruno Ganz), a dying cancer patient desperate to leave his family an inheritance. Jonathan begrudgingly accepts, but he's no gunman, and the scheme quickly goes sour.
Director
Wim Wenders
Producer
Joachim Von Mengershausen, Wim Wenders
Screenwriter
Wim Wenders
Production Co
Bavaria Film
Genre
Mystery & Thriller
Original Language
German
Release Date (Streaming)
Dec 15, 2015
Runtime
2h 7m
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